Today we bought a 1.5 inch hole saw & dry wall cutters and practiced on some scrap aluminium. Then I cut a 1.5 inch hole right in the side of the fuselage using a tooling hole for a guide. Much to our relief, the hole came out OK. However we had to elongate the hole somewhat since the step inserts at an angle. In addition to the hole in the skin, we had to cut the flanges of the 625 rib and another 1.5 inch hole in the 625 baggage floor rib. All the holes had to be elongated using the spiral cutter and a sanding disk so the step flange would fit flush against the skin which it did. Next we will have to drill many hole in the step flange and also drill the plastic block and step tube. For this we will need a #10 drill bit for the angle drill. I have ordered one from Aircraft Spruce. The order was late in going in so we will not get it until Thursday or Friday. Everything seems to fit well and no catastrophies have occured. However, I am beginning to think that I don't want to push my luck. I may not try to install the step on the left. I will just climb over from the right. After all, I did that in my little Cherokee 140 and Tripacer for years. I have been sweating so much and dripping on the inside of the plane that we were beginning to get some corrusion. I have scuffed it out and primed the areas with a thicker coat of primer. ----------- Today we hit another milestone. We now have work a total of 300 hours on the "quick build" kit!
